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| Daniel Cole/Associated Press |
Ukraine said Tuesday that its forces had repelled multiple Russian attacks around Bakhmut, as Russian troops pushed to encircle the besieged city and Kyiv stepped up calls for advanced Western weapons.
Ukraine’s armed forces, which produce a daily tally of Russian equipment and personnel taken out of action, said Tuesday morning they had killed 850 Russian soldiers in the previous 24 hours.
“The enemy continues to suffer great losses,” the armed forces said in a statement, saying Russia had opened additional civilian medical points for wounded soldiers in the occupied Ukrainian city of Luhansk and other locations.
Russia’s military, bolstered by thousands of troops and paramilitary fighters it throws into offensive operations with little air or artillery cover, has battered Ukrainian positions in recent weeks as it aims for a breakthrough in the Donetsk region, which Russia claims as part of its territory.
The intensified push for territory comes as Ukrainian and Western officials warn of a new Russian offensive across the eastern front line, timed to achieve maximum gains before tanks pledged by Kyiv’s partners begin to arrive on the battlefield.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a news briefing on Tuesday that Ukraine was set to receive between 120 and 140 tanks in a first wave of tank deliveries from Western countries, according to the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper. He didn’t specify when the tanks would arrive.
Soldiers fighting around Bakhmut this week said they were struggling to hold back the Russians, as months of grinding battle erode the Ukrainians’ manpower and weaponry.
“I can’t say the Russians are using a new tactic or strategy,” Ivan Tymochko, a Ukrainian army official, told Ukrainian media on Monday. “They have a number of trained mobilized [soldiers] they can deploy. But they understand that in the case of losses we can break through their defenses over their backs and go on a massive counteroffensive.”
While Russia focuses most of its resources on capturing Bakhmut, the U.K. Defense Ministry said Russia has stepped up probing attacks around the towns of Pavlivka and Vuhledar in the southern part of the Donetsk region, where it previously failed to achieve a breakthrough in November. --->READ MORE HERE
Ukraine said Tuesday its forces had fended off Russian assaults on a road outside Bakhmut in the east, thwarting Moscow’s attempt to gain control of a crucial supply route.
Russian forces have failed to cut off the road leading from the town Chasiv Yar to Bakhmut, which is used for supplying Kyiv’s troops, Ukrainian military spokesperson Serhiy Cherevaty said.
“The Ukrainian army in Bakhmut is supplied with everything necessary,” he added.
Cherevaty said Bakhmut — nicknamed “fortress Bakhmut” for withstanding some of the heaviest fighting of the war — remained one of the main focuses of Russian attacks, including relentless artillery strikes and infantry assaults.
A Belarusian volunteer fighting for Ukraine told Reuters from inside Bakhmut that Russia was shelling the city constantly and its troops were trying to encircle it. Fighting was underway building by building, the volunteer said.
Russian forces have made incremental advances in the area in recent weeks, notably capturing the salt-mining town of Soledar to Bakhmut’s north. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to +++++relevant+++++ and related stories:
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